I know, I know, the Olympics are over. Sad face. But in case you want to be impressed by some tiny countries and how they were faring through the Olympics, here’s an opportunity! Who doesn’t want to root for the underdog? Even if it is against Team USA. Maybe because it’s all settled and done with, we can just read and appreciate what these small countries brought to the games.

Over the years, I’ve seen quite a number of my students who could use some practice when it comes to reading skills, and simply telling them there is lots of compelling, well-written information on the web doesn’t seem to do much good. They ask: where would I find something that’s interesting AND well-written? Usually they only encounter writing of one or the other, and I can understand why. It’s hard, especially when none of your friends are posting anything but what’s considered socially acceptable, to find something that satisfies both categories.

So I have begun sending them articles with the hope of changing this. As it starts, I have only a vague estimation of what students find interesting to read. So if you would like to leave a comment for me on what you find interesting or what you’d like to see more of, I’d be happy to find other kinds of articles as well!

Please note: I do not condone the views of any of these articles! I select them because they are what I picture as interesting to a “typical” high school student and simultaneously have good writing and/or strong vocabulary. I also aim for them to be at a PG13 level or lower. If we would let them into a PG13 movie, why not show them some solid writing in that category?

Anyway, without more ado, Students, here’s your assignment: read at least the first paragraph of each article I post. If you find it interesting, feel free to read more! But I will be happy if you just give the first paragraph a go. All articles will not be appealing to you, so do not try to read all articles. All days will not be carefree and empty, so do not try to read each and every word of each article. You can find time each day to read one paragraph, so do that. And if you don’t have time today to read more than that, but want to, bookmark it in a special folder designed for this purpose!

Also, there are already a bunch posted, but don’t feel like you need to read all of them. If you just start today, from here on out, that’s great!

Hello students, this is a great one for those of you interested in human behavior and/or business. Surprisingly fascinating and a short read, too. From the article:

There is a correlation for bug spray that’s kind of bizarre. We found that a very small difference in dew point made a huge difference in bug-spray orders. When the dew point changed, insects popped up, and everybody ran for the bug spray.

The all time leader in medals, Norway, has been having a disappointing run of it this round of the Olympics. It’s easy to think about the Olympics only from a USA-centric point of view (cause why not?), but this article will pull you out of that for a few minutes, and let you feel the disappointment and hopes of the Norwegians.

As always, please read at least the first paragraph of the article, although I’d encourage more.. so you can get to this quote:

The shock wasn’t just so much that the Norwegians lost the races, though that was bad enough. It was that their next-door neighbors, those uppity Swedes, won both.

Today I’ve included an article pertinent for all of you starting to hear news of the California drought. It turns out that we as a state have HUGE differences in how much we consume per capita per day, with Coastal regions generally performing better than Inland regions. The article also mentions some other major contributors to water usage that can vary from neighbor to neighbor or block to block. Very interesting.

Can you guess where San Diego sits on this list?? (we’re not #1). Can you guess how many California cities make up the top 5? And another question: can you guess which states contain the 5 cities with the least pleasant weather? There’s one repeat, i.e. one state contains two cities with the worst weather, so that’s 4 states.

As always, students, please read at least the first paragraph of this article. It’s a short one, so shouldn’t be too painful. Read More

From the Washington Post, an inside glimpse into a new series debuting on Comedy Central this week. As always, at least a paragraph, folks, but I would recommend in this case to make it a little longer, as there are some interesting pieces near the end of the article.